Invisibility

Invisibility is a status effect which makes units and heroes not appear on their opponent's screen or minimap, and makes them unable to be targeted directly by the enemy. Invisibility makes the unit's model appear transparent, but clearly visible still for allies. If it is an allied hero, its dot on the minimap also turns into a ring for the duration. A unit can gain (usually temporarily, but not always) invisibility through certain spells, items or the Rune of Invisibility. Some units, like most wards have permanent invisibility and do not need to acquire it through other sources. Generally, a unit keeps the gained invisibility until the duration runs out, or they perform an attack or a spell or item cast. True Sight and shared vision allows a unit to see invisible enemies without dispelling the invisibility. True Sight makes the units appear transparent, while shared vision only shows a silhouette. Both make the unit directly targetable again, without dispelling the invisibility.

Most sources of invisibility require some time to turn the unit fully invisible. During this time, the unit is still visible and targetable.

The fade time is a short delay before the actual invisibility is applied, during which a unit's model appears transparent, but still visible to everyone. During it, the unit does not automatically attack nearby enemies, no matter if the auto attack option is turned on or not. It also stops attacking when an attack order was already ongoing. Unlike during the actual invisibility, during the fade time, the unit can cast spells or items and even attack without canceling the invisibility. During the fade time, the unit is not phased, even when the invisibility of the spell phases the unit.

The fade delay is also a short delay before the actual invisibility is applied, but has some significant differences. First off, during the fade delay, the unit's model does not appear transparent. Furthermore, the unit does not stop automatically attacking nearby enemies when the auto attack option is turned on, and the fade delay does not cause the unit to cancel an already ongoing attack order either. Unlike during the fade time, it is not possible to cast spells or items or attack during the fade delay without resetting it. During the fade delay, the unit is not phased, even when the invisibility of the spell phases the unit.

While invisible, a unit never automatically attacks any nearby enemy, not even when it is revealed by True Sight and being attacked. However, when issuing an attack ground order, the invisible unit attacks. Generally, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the attack point. For ranged heroes, this is upon projectile launch. Depending on the source, invisibility may or may not apply a phase effect on the unit.

As for spell casts, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the cast point of the spell. This means that spells with extended effects like Eclipse or Epicenter do not cancel the invisibility upon each beam or pulse. Channeling spells do not cancel it either when going invisible after the channeling started.

All ranged attacks and most projectiles of abilities are disjointed by invisibility. It is enough for a unit to turn fully invisible even just for a split second as a disjointable projectile flies to fully disjoint it. However, some projectile abilities still affect invisible units, and some have other effects entirely. Invisible units are still fully or partially affected by spells which affect an area.

Fade Delay: 0.6Duration: 5Phased: YesCan be cast on self or allied heroes. The target stays invisible for the whole duration. When breaking invisibility, the unit turns invisible again after the fade delay.

Fade Time: 0Duration: 25Phased: NoAffects self. Invisibility is not lost upon casting spells or items or attacking. Invisibility is lost when getting within range of enemy heroes and towers. Immune to True Sight.

Fade Time: 0.7Duration: 20/25/30/35Phased: NoAffects self. The fade delay is not used upon cast. After breaking invisibility, Sand King turns invisible again after the fade delay. The effect ends if Sand King leaves the Sand Storm radius. Invisibility lingers for 0.5 seconds after the effect ends.

Radius: 0Fade Time: 0Duration: ( )Phased: NoAffects self. Invisibility is not lost upon casting spells or items or attacking. Immune to True Sight. A smoke cloud is visible at Slark's location. When upgraded, the effect is aura-based, lingering for 0.5 seconds.

Radius: 1200Fade Time: 0Duration: 35Phased: NoAffects allied player controlled units in the area. Invisibility is not lost upon casting spells or items. Invisibility is lost when getting within range of enemy heroes and towers. Immune to True Sight.

True Sight allows a unit to see invisible enemies that are in range. Some of the listed spells provide True Sight only during certain situations. Spells which provide shared vision are not listed here, since it is not actual True Sight. A list for that can be found here.

Most spells which affect an area usually affect invisible units as well, with some exceptions. Single target spells cannot target invisible units without the help of True Sight. Although shared vision renders the unit's model visible even during invisibility, it is not enough to allow single target spells to target them.

Spells which choose specific or random targets on cast behave inconsistently with invisibility. This includes all bouncing spells (e.g. Arc Lightning) and multi-target spells like Poison Touch and Heat-Seeking Missile. The following such spells do not target invisible units:

For most spells, it does not matter if the target turns invisible after the spell's effect already have begun. Their effects continue normally, regardless of the invisibility. There are exceptions to this.

All sources of invisibility disjoint projectiles. Even a split-second of vision loss caused by invisibility is enough to disjoint projectiles, even when regaining vision of the unit before the projectile reaches it. This disjoint does not happen when having True Sight over the unit.

Besides disjointed projectiles, the following spells behave differently when their targets turn invisible while they are active.

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